Perhaps the article was not published because, rather than explore the issues that caused you to be a potential shooter or the people and events which helped you become a better person, you leapt straight into the "whahhh video games, young people today with the zippity zappity. Go ride bikes..."Way too many of your own unsubstantiated hypothesises and not enough delving into your own experiences (you know, the things that you could have a unique voice on). There are enough people who blame video games, or the indoors but there are also people who will tell you that being able to take out their frustrations on a first person shooter helped them. There are not many people who can tell you how they went from having a shotgun in their lunchbox to being a teacher.

FPS games are probably not the best thing for kids with emotional problems. It's not a cause, but a likely a symptom.

It's simple...as parents, you just limit the time your kid has on the computer. The problem really is that too many parents let the computer babysit their teens when they really are feeling the most lost and awkward.

No, honey. You were probably absolutely gun-obsessed as a kid because you felt powerless in school for whatever various social and learning reasons. Carrying around a gun probably made you feel like you had power, because in your head you could go, "You're making me feel like shiat, but I could end your life right now. I could. But I'm not. You have no idea who has the power here right now. I do." And that made you feel better.

Video games wouldn't have changed that. Actually, some video games might have helped you, by giving you a feeling of control, or being able to play the hero. There's more to video games than just FPSes, and not all FPSes are created equal, anyway.

You also probably became a high school teacher for the power thing. You're in there, in control of the classroom like you never could have been as a kid. And that's just sad for so many reasons.

Video games are singularly HORRIBLE at teaching people to handle real guns. Seriously, really really bad.

Not only do the animations in the games rarely match the actual guns mechanics, but the switches and buttons and releases are not shown in games and if they are, invariably they are shown wrong. Furthermore, you can't run and shoot a gun and hit anything. No one can. Maybe the best trained military folks, but no cop, no kid and no video gamer can.

One last thing... if you have never fired a real gun, or a real Full Auto gun, a video game is not going to help you at all. Real guns are heavy, they are loud, and they are forceful. Your mouse doesn't have force feedback like the grip of a real gun does. ;) I have seen professional shooters nearly wet themselves when handed a full auto AK, and 1 minute later hand it back and say things like "omg that was insane" "too much for me" "how are you supposed to control it?". The real thing is REAL, and it's far more than you are going to expect from a game.

FPS games are probably not the best thing for kids with emotional problems. It's not a cause, but a likely a symptom.

Yup. Multitudes of teenagers play violent video games. If they caused violence, wouldn't we see a lot more school shootings than we do? But I'm not sure it's necessarily a symptom. Or, rather, the propensity to play those sorts of games could be a symptom of any number of psychiatric issues. Heck, they can even be helpful for some people.

My brother, in his mid-twenties now, has been playing FPS games since Duke Nukem 3D. He had a long bout with chronic pain as a teen, and video games both helped him to escape thinking about health issues, and to take out some of his frustrations on pixel enemies. He is one of the least violent people I know.

The writer here does touch on the simulation aspect of first person shooters. They're practice, of sorts, which certain individuals probably shouldn't have. That much makes sense. Other than that, no new insights, really.

Bullseyed:4.) "Mass shooters" are rarely gun owners. Most guns used in violent crimes are stolen from legal gun owners because the shooter could not legally acquire one.

You've got two separate issues here, and this point is the critical failure in all the firearms regulations debate. Most of the guns in the "Mass Shootings" were legally owned by the shooter or a member of the shooter's immediate family. In contrast, the guns used in most of your "crime" shootings, that is, armed robbery, gang-warfare, that kind of thing, those tend to be obtained illegally . They're stolen or bought through straw-purchases.

The "crazy" shootings and the "crime" shootings are two entirely different things requiring different solutions. Sure, both are illegal and both stem from some degree of insanity, whether it's psychosis or some degree of anti-social personality disorder, but you are being overly simplistic if you include Columbine, Newtown, & Aurora with your gang-related shootings, the back-alley stick-up, the murder of the Texas District Attorney and his wife, and the Arizona Sheriff's Deputy shootings.

There are two factors in play here. First off, video games are not training for anything. My friend can shred through "Through the Fire and Flames" in Guitar Hero on the hardest setting but I doubt he could play Yankee Doodle on a real guitar if his life depended on it. Likewise, just because someone is good at Call of Duty, doesn't mean any of that would translate into real world skill. If anything, trying to behave in a real gunfight the way you play a FPS will get you even more killed. In real life you can't shake off 3 bullet wounds by holding still for 10 seconds.

Secondly, there is the issue of kids being desensitized to violence by media. This is a legitimate concern, but the kicker is that it only affects NORMAL KIDS. Normal kids might get a warped view of the world from media, but it's never going to push them into committing violence.

"I was a psycho who got expelled from school for carrying a loaded, stolen handgun into class. Then I didn't learn my lesson and would carry around loaded sawed off shotguns. I got in lots of fights but never murdered anyone. My mom raised me to believe video games are evil, and so I do believe it, because that makes a lot of sense. Some people who did terrible things also played video games. I didn't ever murder anyone, only thought about it constantly and also thought about killing myself, so clearly video games cause murders."

I can't imagine why HuffPo wouldn't want this psychopath on their staff.

-I played counter strike pretty much all day every day from the minute it was released, up until I graduated high school.-I love, and am well versed in the usage of, firearms. I've owned several since my dad bought me my first .22 when I was 13.-I had difficulty fitting in and making friends in high school(my family put me in a high school full of farm kids, I hate farms, farming, and people who don't shut up about their prize winning cattle or whatever. It's dull as hell to me)-I never paid much attention in school-I was flagged by the school counselor as "high risk" when it came to potentially violent tendencies

Despite all of this, I never got into a fight during high school, never resolved any problem with violent tendencies and when the school counselors would constantly ask me what I thought about Columbine my response was always "why bother killing a ton of others if you're just going to kill yourself? I'm not suicidal or feeling like violence is ever the answer. But if I reached a point where suicide became a viable option, just kill yourself and get it over with. Why needlessly involve others and hurt entire families with no reason?"

Reality was, I may have been a loaner but I was also one of the least violent kids in class. Even though I had easy access to high powered weapons, lots of experience "training" on a violent tactical shooter, and a high level of social awkwardness.

By the authors rationale, I have just proven without a shadow of a doubt how violent video games DO NOT cause school shootings.

Mr. Eugenides:ADHD Librarian: Perhaps the article was not published because, rather than explore the issues that caused you to be a potential shooter or the people and events which helped you become a better person, you leapt straight into the "whahhh video games, young people today with the zippity zappity. Go ride bikes..."Way too many of your own unsubstantiated hypothesises and not enough delving into your own experiences (you know, the things that you could have a unique voice on). There are enough people who blame video games, or the indoors but there are also people who will tell you that being able to take out their frustrations on a first person shooter helped them. There are not many people who can tell you how they went from having a shotgun in their lunchbox to being a teacher.

Well, the argument that video games cause school shootings is probably more substantiated than the scary black long guns cause school shootings hypothesis. I think every mass shooter going back to Columbine has been documented as an FPS player. That's a greater correlation than the one between black long gun ownership and mass shootings.

Or as the author, he could have delved into the fact that none of these kids, NONE, had a support network in their own house. NAH. It was the video games.

ADHD Librarian:Perhaps the article was not published because, rather than explore the issues that caused you to be a potential shooter or the people and events which helped you become a better person, you leapt straight into the "whahhh video games, young people today with the zippity zappity. Go ride bikes..."Way too many of your own unsubstantiated hypothesises and not enough delving into your own experiences (you know, the things that you could have a unique voice on). There are enough people who blame video games, or the indoors but there are also people who will tell you that being able to take out their frustrations on a first person shooter helped them. There are not many people who can tell you how they went from having a shotgun in their lunchbox to being a teacher.

Well, the argument that video games cause school shootings is probably more substantiated than the scary black long guns cause school shootings hypothesis. I think every mass shooter going back to Columbine has been documented as an FPS player. That's a greater correlation than the one between black long gun ownership and mass shootings.

I'm looking at you editors of TheNew York Times. "For the Love of Sock" was my got damned magnum opus!

Maybe I'm a snob, but whenever I see a "(Some Guy)" source on a link with a headline about "...the TRUTH..." or some such I'm immediately inclined to not contribute to their pageviews. Thank you, Brap and all others that have made that decision seem like a very good one here.

puffy999:I love my gun nut friends. I have a couple guns, and like guns, and hunt and target shoot and all that, but I don't call myself a gun nut. I don't want to F*CK my weapon. I RESPECT my weapon, as I do ALL weapons.

So, when I continue to hear stupid Fox News sh*t regarding guns, and when I see things that imply KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN SHOULD BE EQUIPPED WITH GUNS, I want to, you know, go on a shooting spree.